Oscar 2021: Anthony Hopkins wins Best Actor award for ‘The Father’

Anthony Hopkins, 83, won big at Oscar 2021, bagging the Best Actor award, for his performance in The Father. He beat stiff competition Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Gary Oldman (Mank) and Steven Yeun (Minari).

This is the second Oscar for Hopkins. His first was in 1992 for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. He’s been nominated four times since without a win.

The category, quite interestingly decked up this year with more
number of newcomers than veteran actors, is also one of the most diverse groups
in this category in the last few years.

Also read: From Frances McDormand to Anthony Hopkins: Full list of winners in Oscars 2021

Last year, Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar in this category
for his performance in Joker.

After previous nominations such as Denzel Washington,
Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Daniel Kaluuya, Boseman has become the fourth Black actor
to get nominated in the category in the last 10 years, while Ahmed, after Ben
Kingsley, has become the second actor of South Asian origin to ever be recognised.
Yeun, too, has notably been the first East Asian nominee in the category.

Also read: Oscars 2021: Chloe Zhao wins best directing award for ‘Nomadland’

Boseman, who has already posthumously won the Academy Awards
and Golden Globe Awards in 2021, has become the fifth actor ever to
posthumously compete under the category.